A Brief History of Antarctic Exploration and Discovery
c.650
According to the legends of Polynesian Rarotonga, their Chief Ui-te-Rangiora set out in a canoe and headed south until the ocean was covered with `white powder and great white rocks rose high into the sky’.
The ancient Greeks named the constellation of stars above the North Pole arctos (bear). Later they named the South Pole region as `opposite the bear’ or anti-arctos. Aristotle reasoned that the northern landmass of Eurasia must be balanced by some then-unknown southern continent, Antarktikos.
Until the 16th century most people believed the world was flat, and
assumed that an adventurous traveller would simply fall off the edge
of the earth if they ventured too far on a map!
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